Thursday, September 22nd 2011 – Rome, Italy

Despite the creepy atmosphere of our room, we slept in until noon and as a result, missed the complimentary breakfast at the hotel. This was truly complimentary unlike our experience in Barcelona! The night before, we purchased unlimited metro passes for three days at 11 Euros each and were eager to put them to use so we decided to visit the Colosseum. We chose to get off the metro one stop before it in order to find a place to eat.

Rome was quite hot, more so than Barcelona. At 30 degrees Celsius, the weather was beautiful. With a water bottle in hand, purchased from the local pharmacy, we walked through tiny and hilly streets looking for a place to eat. Shiv approached a local who suggested Via Nazionale, a street with shops and food. On our way, however, we approached a small but busy cafeteria and decided to try the food. For 6 Euros, you could choose a meat dish, a veggie, and pasta. The gnocchi was fantastic, and with bellies full, we were off to find the Colosseum.

Thoroughly lost in relation to where the metro station was, we found the Colosseum on foot when Shiv noticed it in the distance. She is clearly more observant than I am, as I was more focused on the street names and didn’t notice the massive structure that is clearly identifiable as one of Rome’s main landmarks.

We decided that we would pay the 12 Euros to tour the Colosseum and it was money well spent as it is a very impressive representation of Roman architecture. Completed in 80 AD, we could not help but compare it to Toronto’s oldest buildings which are only from around the late 18th century.

After a couple hours of walking and taking photos, we headed back to the hotel for a nap (surprise, surprise). It was then time to check out the city nightlife and so we went to Trastevere, an area recommended by Shiv’s coworker.

How amazing! Full of narrow, winding cobblestone roads, restaurants and bars, Trastevere is lively and has a great upbeat atmosphere. With so many choices, we had a hard time settling on a restaurant. Once we did, we had pizza and pasta to share. This was our first pizza in Italy and it was more amazing then we could have ever imagined. It was so light and tasty, nothing at all like the pizza we’re used to from North America. It was official. Italian pizza has ruined for us all other pizzas.

Well fed once again, we sought out a place to dance the night away. Unfortunately, the only place we found (and due to the winding streets, kept ending up at) was a bar called DJ Bar. We did take a look inside but only because we needed to use the washroom (restroom). Far too crowded (this had to be a violation of sorts), we left immediately.

Asking around, we took a cab to another area of town where there were dance clubs to be found. We ended up in a Salsa club with some new friends we had made earlier in Trastevere. The people in the club were very friendly (perhaps a little too friendly) and there were many offers for a salsa dance, but with our feet in pain from walking in heels on the cobbled roads, we decided to trek back to the hotel.

The earlier cab ride had cost 10 Euros and we knew that to take it back to the hotel would be quite pricey and not in line with our economical approach so we decided to try and find a midnight bus. After taking the shadiest streets where we may have been mistaken for ladies of the night, we managed to find the bus with Shiv’s determination.

On the bus, we noticed that it was based on an honour system. You could enter the bus from any door and were not required to show payment to the driver. There was a machine in which you could purchase tickets on the bus, but we rarely saw that in use.